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Time Travel Tuesday: Four Benefits of a General Store

Once upon a time, when America was young and expansion was moving westward, most newly created towns had a general store or a mercantile. Most of the towns were small, and the cost of getting goods to the town was usually high, so the general store tried to carry all the merchandise a person might need. From guns to nails to pans to dresses and boots, the general store was often the one place in town to buy goods and it sold everything.

As time went on, the general store became less relevant. Goods were less costly to move and easier to get, so stores started specializing. People went one place to buy dress shoes and another place to buy athletic shoes and yet another place to buy boots. Sure it was more trips, and wasn’t always convenient, but the selection was better, or the costs of an individual purchase were less, or so it seemed, so people convinced themselves it was worth the extra time and effort.

It is true that, in some cases, it is worth to move from store to store. A store that specializes in one particular kind of item might have more brands or styles available. Stores that specialize will hopefully have employees that have a more in depth knowledge of the brands and products sold. A single product store may have better prices because they’re buying more of that product from fewer suppliers. There are advantages to specialty stores but, in our opinion, a general store, like EnMart, still offers more benefits. Here’s a few of the reasons why we hold that opinion.

Benefit 1: Time is precious – A lot of people who decorate are people who are running their own businesses, who are tasked with management, production and many other things in addition to ordering. Shopping with a supplier that offers products for a variety of decoration disciplines means you can get everything you need in one place, in one visit. Time spent visiting multiple stores or sites may save you a few pennies, but it will cost you in productive hours lost.

Benefit 2: Merchandise that sells – Every store has space constraints, whether it’s the physical constraints of a building, or the monetary restraints of the cost of inventory. When you shop at a general store, the items in every category are items that sell, because they have to be. Just like the general stores of days gone by, the current one stop shops have to offer inventory that produces, they don’t have space for items that are so-so. The product offerings in a particular category may be narrower, but they’ll be ones that sell because they get their particular jobs done.

Benefit 3: Easy Expansion – Say you’re an embroiderer and you want to add sublimation. Or you’re a quilt shop owner that’s interested in adding craft kits. If you’re working with a one stop shop, like EnMart, you can find what you need, get your questions answered and purchase your supplies easily. As an extra, added bonus, you’ll be dealing with a company you already know and trust.

Benefit 4: Easy to Remember – It seems, nowadays, that shopping is about remembering passwords, and where your credit card numbers are stored and where they aren’t, and keeping straight which information matches with which store. If you’re working with a general store, you only have to remember one set of information. There’s no stress about forgetting or confusing a password, no worries about what thing gets purchased from what store. It’s all in one place.

Obviously, EnMart doesn’t yet carry the supplies for every decoration discipline, we’ve always focused on decoration techniques like machine embroidery and sublimation in which we have an expertise. Our goal is to give you the benefit of our knowledge, experience and connections, so you can get quality products at reasonable prices while also receiving knowledgeable support and fast shipping. We may not wear white aprons and sweep the front porch of the store in the morning, but we follow in the footsteps of those men and women who once operated the general stores. Our goal is to get you what you need, with a maximum of value and a minimum of stress.